Isabella of the Southern Isles
by 0hsnap10
Summary: "Isabella, a young woman who controls fire, ironically enough, find solace in the cold. She has attempted to locate the source of the great freeze from many months back and has finally made her way to Arendelle. Hopefully it will be everything she hopes for, but let's be honest, it probably won't be." This is a re-write of "The Hooded Stranger. ...I can't place anything into genres
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! This story is a sequel to my previous story "A Queen's Nightmares." While it isn't necessary to read, (As I hope I have summarized it well in this chapter) I hope you would to show some support for me. (Also in case I _didn't_ summarize it well.) Nonetheless, here are my summaries of both "Frozen" and "A Queen's Nightmares" to help you get up to speed! Enjoy.**

* * *

_**W****hat**** has gone before:**_

_FROZEN:_

Princess Anna of Arendelle and Princess Elsa of Arendelle were very close as children, but an accident involving Elsa's ice powers made the royal family lock themselves away and keep the princesses separate from each other until Elsa could master control.

In a few years the king and queen died, leaving Arendelle with no rulers. Elsa was still too young to ascend to the throne, but in three years she would be crowned queen.

When she was, she accidentally revealed her powers and froze the kingdom of Arendelle in the middle of summer.

Anna, Kristoff, and Sven along with help from a snowman Elsa made named Olaf, set out to retrieve her.

Along the way, Anna's heart became frozen by Elsa, and so they set out to unfreeze it.

They learned that only an act of true love could unfreeze it, so they decided to go to Hans, Anna's fiance.

Hans captured Elsa and brought her to a cell in Arendelle's castle.

When Anna returned to Hans, he betrayed her; locked her in a room; and set out to kill Elsa.

The both escaped, and before Hans could commit the murder, Anna stepped in the way. This satisfied the act of true love required to unfreeze her heart.

Elsa sent Hans back to the Southern Isles to receive punishment from his own family., and Anna began a relationship with Kristoff.

_A QUEEN'S NIGHTMARES:_

Very shortly after Elsa had sent Hans back home, she went to the ballroom. She had mastered control over her power through the love she held for her sister. She was unafraid of her powers for the first time in forever, and she wanted to see how far she could push her limits.

She began swirling snowflakes throughout the room. Faster and faster they flew. She was so caught up in the beauty of it, she lost her concentration and the snowflakes flew directly through her body. Directly through her heart. She wasn't harmed. Not physically. She didn't feel any pain. Being immune to ice, you wouldn't expect her to, but it affected her mind.

It caused dreadful nightmares, and it caused Elsa to create an evil consciousness calling herself Passtale to haunt her.

Eventually, Passtale gained more influence over the real world. To the point where it seemed that she had control, albeit weak and temporary, over actions that Elsa took while awake.

In one attempt at sleep, Elsa miraculously brought Anna into her nightmare, and Passtale attempted to kill her. Elsa sacrificed herself to save Anna, unfreezing her own heart and getting rid of Passtale.

_Elsewhere..._


	2. Chapter 2

"Excuse me." A woman asked anyone who might be willing to listen.

Apparently that was no one; everyone around was ignoring her.

It wasn't because she was unattractive; she was a sight to see, she knew. Her long, red hair that fell just past her shoulders when it was down; her brown eyes that shouldn't even really be brown to begin with; her slim face; red lips; the only thing she felt insecure about was the fact that she was almost shockingly pale.

"Pardon me, sir." She tried to get the attention of someone else but failed once again.

"Hello?!" She called out to no one in particular.

Of course, _that _got a response.

"Hello there." Came the voice of a man.

The owner of the voice was a little ways across the room. He was a respectable height, and wore clothing that was far more fancy than what seemed appropriate given the fact that they were in a bar with what many would describe as the scum of this town. He wore a string with a small vial with a liquid inside of it tied around his neck, but by far the most striking thing about him was his dark blue hair with several hairs that were completely black from the root down.

"Um... hi." She said to the man.

"I know what it is you want." He said to her as he swiftly made his way to her.

"How?"

"I've been following you." He said.

"You were here before I was." She deadpanned.

"It doesn't matter _when_ I started following you; what matters is that I know what you want and where you need to go to get it." He said confidently.

"This is sounding rape-y."

"Shut up, you want to go to Arendelle." He told her.

The man was joined by two others.

"Don't mind them, they're my... escorts? Acquaintances? Employees?"

"Friends?" One of them suggested.

"That's it, tools." He decided.

"Good to know he thinks of us as tools." The other newcomer said.

"Oh, don't take it personally, everyone is a tool to me." He "comforted" them both.

"You're nuts." She told him.

"And _you're _going to Arendelle." He declared.

"Why?" She asked him.

"Because, you remember the great freeze, and you want to know what caused it; the answer is in Arendelle."

"Where is Arendelle?"

"It's up north of here."

"Fine," She said reluctantly. "It's not like I have anything better to do."

The woman began to walk out of the bar as to make her way up north to Arendelle, but the man called out after her; she turned to face him.

"When you get there, seek out Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff."

"Why?"

"Because Elsa is like you; she's also the cause of the great freeze."

The woman turned toward the door and, once again, began to make her way into the outdoors.

As soon as she left the bar, she had herself a look around. She quickly found north and made her way to it, really hoping that this, "Arendelle" wherever it was, wasn't too far away.

She was about a half a mile away from the city when she heard the explosion. Looking back, she saw the smoke and heard the panic. She contemplated returning to help, but she knew that, by the time she had gotten back, they probably would have it all taken care of.

It was another short time before a horse rushed past her. Mounted on it was the man who had told her to make her way to Arendelle. She had a strong feeling that this man was the cause of the explosion.

She vaguely saw him throw something into the nearby woods as he rode past her. She followed the path the object seemed to be taking.

On the forest floor was a small bag. It was soaking wet for a reason the woman could not begin to guess. She quickly pulled it open and inside were a couple of rocks and a note. The liquid had smudged the ink slightly, but she could still make it out.

"What? Did you think this was important? HA!

Hugs and kisses,

Phillip."

She blinked in disbelief at the contents of the note, but quickly shook herself out of it and continued her trek north.

She thought back to the last thing the man, presumably Phillip, assuming the note was meant for her, had said to her.

Another one like her, but this one was the cause of the great freeze? It made sense that winter weather in the middle of summer would have been caused by someone with control over the element, that would mean that this person had extreme power! She could do some cheap tricks here and there; she could defend herself for sure, but her flames could never spread over multiple kingdoms... could it?

The thought of another person with powers both excited her and made her nervous. She loved the thought of finding someone with similar abilities, but at the same time, the last person she knew with powers... the story didn't end well.

Her anger at the man who'd hurt her so much caused her power to go out of control for a moment. A flame ignited between her fingers and the bag in her hand ignited far more quickly than it should have. Nonetheless, the bag was quickly turned to ash. It was no longer of any importance to anyone, so she stopped trying to save it. Somehow, even though she could summon and extinguish fire at will, she could do nothing but watch as the bag became completely unrecognizable alongside the note contained within it.

She sighed in defeat and continued on, leaving the ashes to be thrown carelessly by the wind.

* * *

She was traveling north for what felt like months. Perhaps that's because it was. She didn't know, she'd been traveling almost none-stop, not even to try to find another human civilization. The man said north. She figured she'd either reach Arendelle; reach another town in which she could ask for directions to Arendelle, hopefully the people would be more helpful this time then they were last time she was with people; or she'd reach the north pole.

Thinking about that made her wonder why it had never occurred to her to go there before.

Being a fire elemental, you'd think that she would loathe the cold, but in reality she found comfort in it. The goosebumps she felt on her cold skin somehow invigorated her. They made her feel all toasty inside, ironically enough.

She suddenly felt as though she was being watched. She continued on but, for several days, the feeling never left her. She finally stumbled into a town and, after being laughed at for asking if this was Arendelle, she stumbled into a clothing shop and bought herself a cloak from the money she'd been able to obtain from pretending to be a beggar.

It kind of made her sad, actually. People pass by beggars every day and give them nothing, but the second the beggar has a pretty face, they go out of their way to give them money.

Once she had bought herself a nice, but plain and inconspicuous cloak, she began to go around the town giving every beggar she saw some of the left over money.

She still felt like someone was watching her, meaning that the reason she'd bought the cloak in the first place was failing. She walked into a tavern in order to try to lose whoever might be following her.

"What can I get you, stranger?"

"Anything non-alcoholic." She said quickly.

"If you're not here to drink, then why are you here?" The barkeep asked her.

"I'm wondering where I can find Arendelle?" She asked him.

"Well, sir-" Sir? "Arendelle is sveral miles northwest of here. No more than a two day's journey by foot. Riding a horse will cut that down significantly, but of course, for that you'd need a horse." He joked.

"Thanks for your time." She said, turning to leave.

"Hey, didn't you want something to drink?"

"What's the cheapest thing you have?" She asked.

"That would be water at the special price, just for you and everyone else, of free."

"How could I pass up a deal like that?" She followed along. This man seemed like he enjoyed his job.

"I'd say you couldn't." He said, giving her a glass of, mostly clear but with some small specks of minerals in it, water.

Alcohol never agreed with her. That, plus the fact that she had no money, made her current drink the best option for her.

Alcohol, for some reason, literally created a fire in her stomach. Her increased body temperature plus the high-flammability of alcohol made her stomach spark the alcohol into an inferno in her body. It didn't feel painful, but it forced smoke to come out of her mouth, and occasionally it would force her to burp out fire. She didn't mind the effect, but being in public when it happened would not be desirable at all.

She hadn't quite finished her glass of water before another figure entered the tavern. The figure was wearing the exact same cloak that she was, hood covering its face and everything, even the color was the same.

"A friend of yours?" The barkeeper asked her.

"I've never seen that person before in my life." She scowled at the figure from underneath her hood. This had to be the person following her. She just couldn't shake the feeling.

The figure walked nonchalantly over and sat himself next to her.

"Thanks for the water. I'll be sure to recommend it." She said to the bartender before she walked out the door to continue her journey.

As soon as she was out of the tavern and far enough away that no one from there could see her, she ran.


	3. Chapter 3

**So. I've done some things in an attempt to make this story a much better read, one of which is to wait a day before posting the chapter to make sure that I like it. One thing I want to say, though, is that if there is any chapter that you think is sub-par, let me know. I would much rather re-write a chapter 8 times than have a chapter everyone hates. P.S. I really hope I didn't jinx myself and this becomes a chapter that everyone hates.**

* * *

Phillip couldn't help but smile as Senator What's-his-name, if that was even his title, kept droning on even though Elsa was obviously not paying any attention to him.

It was obvious the man wasn't paying any attention himself based on the fact that, despite the fact that Elsa was looking in every direction but his, and Phillip was fighting back a smile, he never ceased his speech.

"Elsa, I think you need a break." He whispered to the queen.

That seemed to bring her back to reality momentarily.

"Philip!" The man snapped. "Are you aware that this is a very important meeting? Your interruptions will not be tolerated."

"Are you aware that the queen has not been paying any attention to this, 'important meeting' of yours?" Phillip snapped back.

Elsa saw the accusation immediately.

"Wait, what? No, I knew what you were talking about; I was listening." She insisted.

Phillip raised an eyebrow.

"Really? What was the last thing he was talking about?"

Elsa glared at him for a brief moment before speaking.

"Stephen. The new king of the Southern Isles. Um... as his first order of business, he wants to restore Arendelle and the Southern Isles' relationship. He offered a marriage to unify the kingdoms." She said hopefully.

"That's very good Elsa; if, of course I had been asking the question an hour ago." Phillip said as he glanced back at the man. "You accuse my awareness, but at least I recognize when the queen is not her usual self." Phillip finished in a purposefully demeaning tone.

"Need I remind you of your position here?" The man responded.

"Clearly _I_ need to remind _you_ of my position here. You may have more governing power than I do, but, as Elsa's adviser; guard; and whatever else she needs me to be, I am far closer to the throne than you, and I believe if you looked closely at the laws you help write, you'd see that I am, indeed, your superior, so I will say it again..." Phillip paused for a moment before taking a deep breath and turning to Elsa to repeat, in a calm tone:

"Elsa, I think you need a break."

She let loose a heavy sigh.

"You're probably right. How about we pause this for about five minutes. I'll be right back." She said before swiftly rising from her seat and making her way towards the door with Phillip following her closely.

Phillip was completely silent until he and Elsa had both left the room and latched the door behind them.

"This isn't exactly what I meant whe-"

"What was that?!" Elsa barked.

"He was disrespecting me." Phillip defended.

"You were disrespecting him." She retorted.

"He was acting as though I was his child; if he, or anyone else for that matter, decides to put that time and effort into my life, then maybe I'll respect them when they do things like that."

Elsa could hear the pain and anger in his voice. To say that Phillip had bad luck with parents would be an understatement. His biological parents had given him up when he was just a baby. A few years later, his adoptive parents gave him up, and a few years after that, his second adoptive father left him and his mother to go who-knows-where to do who-knows-what with who-knows-who. His second adoptive father's departure left him and his mother practically begging on the streets of Arendelle. Finally, his mother begged the king to take her and her son under his servitude. Elsa's father, being the kind and understanding man that he was back then, agreed, and Phillip became the first and only child servant under the king.

Phillip, while being a servant, didn't really ever have orders barked at him. He became a fairly close friend of Anna and Elsa and played alongside them when Elsa used her powers openly. When Elsa had her accident, the dynamic changed entirely. Elsa was no longer around and Anna barely left Elsa's door. The few times he and Anna did play, it wasn't much fun for him between Anna's youth; gender; and constant ramblings about Elsa despite the fact that most of the things she spoke of were false memories. It got worse for him the same time it got worse for Elsa and Anna.

Phillip's mother was on the same ship that Elsa and Anna's parents were, and she shared in their fate. Phillip had gone through three sets of parents before he'd turned twenty.

"Listen Phillip; I-"

"No, you're right. I'm sorry. I'm going to go out for a walk; you go back in there and find me when you're done, okay? I want to tell you something."

Elsa turned to re-enter the conference room, but a heavy sigh from Phillip made her pause.

"And Elsa?"

"Yes?"

"Tell him that I apologize for my outburst, please." He said before walking off by himself.

Elsa blinked. It was a rare occurrence for Phillip to apologize to anyone besides Anna or herself. This was mostly because he couldn't care less what adults thought of him, so he never apologized to them, and he was a saint around children, so he never needed to apologize to them, but here he was, requesting that she deliver his apology.

She turned the knob and re-entered the room. She walked gracefully and silently over to her seat and sat down in it.

"Is Phillip going to be returning?" The man asked with a grin that almost made Elsa sick.

"No. He sends his apologies both for his absence and for his outburst." Elsa said simply.

"Are we ready to continue then?" He asked.

"Yes."

* * *

Later...

* * *

"Please tell a story." The kid begged.

Phillip smiled at the kid, but he looked over his shoulder when he heard a sound coming from behind him.

"Ah, Elsa. I trust the rest of the meeting went without a hitch." He said.

"Well, it was mostly a waste of time, but most of them are. Arendelle is in an era of peace. Surprisingly, no one is threatening war; in fact, Weselton and the Southern Isles are practically begging to be put back into their previous relationships with the kingdom." She explained.

"I see."

"So, what are you up to with this little guy?" Elsa said kneeling before the child, giving him a soft smile.

"Ah, he wants a story." Phillip told her.

Phillip was notorious for being good with kids. Elsa felt like this was always the true Phillip: kind, patient, innocent, but his previous experiences had made him hate adults; herself and Anna being the only exceptions.

"Well, give him one!" Elsa encouraged him, to the excitement of the child before them.

"Alright," Phillip began, getting on his knees and inching closer to the kid. "This isn't exactly a story, but it's all I can think of at the moment. Remember though, it's a secret to everybody."

Phillip reached into his shirt and grabbed at the piece of rope tied around his neck. There was a small vial of liquid tied to the end of the clumsily-made necklace.

"Do you know what's in here?" He asked.

The child shook his head.

"In here are the tears the sun itself cried long ago. I'm sure you've heard the legend..."

The kid shook his head once more.

"Really? I thought everyone knew. It's said that the sun's tears can heal any wound. Some say they can even bring people back from the dead!"

"Are they true?" The little boy asked in awe.

"Well, I have never experimented, but I have no reason to doubt the legend."

"Try it!" The boy cried.

"No," Phillip said simply. "Each of these tears holds value that would make even the queen here jealous." Phillip passed Elsa a glance when he said that. "I wouldn't want to waste one testing it out." Phillip said.

Just then, the boys mother came and grabbed him, giving Phillip a nasty look.

He just smiled at both of them

"So long, son." Phillip called to the boy.

The boy waved goodbye at him as he went.

Still smiling, Phillip turned to Elsa.

"That woman hates me." He said simply.

"Most adults hate you almost as much as you hate them." She pointed out.

"It's a good thing they don't decide whether I keep my job or not, not that I really even do my job. You don't need me to." He told her.

Elsa laughed at that.

"It's just water in that vial, isn't it?" She said, referencing Phillips monologue.

"Correction, it's _mostly_ water. One singular tear was hard enough to get. I was hoping that the effect would still happen despite being watered down."

"Come on, Phillip. I'm not a child; you don't have to try to convince me that what you said back there was true."

"You don't believe that this will do anything?" Phillip asked holding up the vial.

"No, I don't." She told him.

"You see! That's one of my problems with adults! They don't believe in magic! Even the ones _with_ magic find it hard to believe the impossible."

"There's a reason they call it, 'Impossible.'" Elsa pointed out.

"But when you're a child, the impossible isn't impossible. Just because you've never seen a person shoot fire from their palms doesn't mean that no person is capable of it. Just because you've never seen a vial of liquid that can heal any wound instantly doesn't mean that no such liquid exists. Adults assume that magic doesn't exist, and so they never experience it."

Elsa lifted a hand and shot snowflakes out of her palm.

"That's different. When did you discover your abilities?" He asked her rhetorically.

"I don't think that's a fair question. If you have powers as a child you'll discover it as a child because you'll eventually lose control of it."

"How do you know? Have you met anyone with other powers? What was happening when you found out you had abilities? Weren't you playing with Anna, pretending to be the evil witch trying to destroy her happy ending when ice shot out of your hands?"

Elsa could do nothing but nod.

Phillip sighed.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me." He said, hanging his head.

"So I gather that wasn't what you wanted to talk to me about?"

Phillip shook his head.

"It wasn't. I wanted to tell you that Anna told me about the nightmares."

"Didn't _I_ tell you about the nightmares?" Elsa asked, confused.

"You did, but that was before anyone knew exactly why you were having them." He said. "Anyway, when I said that I thought you needed a break, I didn't mean from the meeting; I meant... like a vacation."

"I can't take a break from being queen; I don't need one." She told him.

"I think the reason that you've been so out of it recently is that the stress of your job is preventing you from properly dealing with what's happened this past year. Maybe some time away will help." He responded.

"Where would I go?" She asked.

"How about you go up to the ice palace?" He suggested.


	4. Chapter 4

It was a fairly windy afternoon when the robed woman had finally arrived in Arendelle.

A quick question to one of the citizens had earned her an odd look, but they confirmed that she had, indeed arrived in Arendelle.

A short walk put her into what appeared to be the town square; there were miscellaneous shops and a bridge over to a fairly impressive castle.

Of course Isabella had not in her recent memory been anywhere near a castle as, overall, she disliked royalty. It seemed to her as though these people out here work hard for their scraps, yet all royals have to do is wake up and they get the most exquisite of cuisines.

"Excuse me?" She sounded uncertain but, surprisingly, her tone still got peoples' attention unlike the previous time she'd asked a general audience where only one person recognized her presence.

With a couple dozen people looking in her direction she spoke.

"Does anyone here know anyone by the names of Elsa, Anna, or Kristoff?" She asked, this time sounding much more assertive.

This time, though, her efforts were in vain.

Some people gaped at her, others smiled and shook their heads, others frowned and rolled they're eyes. There were other reactions, but she only needed the first couple to realize that she'd said something incredibly stupid.

Luckily, an older man came waddling up to her.

"You're new here, aren't you?" He asked, breathing out a laugh.

"I Just got here." She told him.

"Well, I'll let you in on Arendelle's worst-kept secret." He said. "Elsa and Anna live over there."

He pointed directly at the castle.

The woman let loose a heavy sigh.

'Of course.' She thought.

She began walking heavily, almost stomping, over toward the castle.

"Excuse me, miss." The man called after her.

She turned and walked back to him. The man held out his hand.

"My name is Thomas." He said.

She grabbed his hand and gave a sturdy handshake.

"Isabella." She said simply.

"It's nice to meet you, Isabella." He told her with the utmost sincerity.

"You too, Thomas. Thank you for not simply pointing and laughing at me like most of the other people here."

Thomas smiled.

"Everyone has moments of appearing dim to everyone else although I must admit that I thought everyone had heard of Elsa, the Ice Queen of Arendelle."

"No one seems to know outside of this kingdom, or if they did, they didn't tell me." Isabella joked.

Thomas gave Isabella a confused look, but it quickly eased back into his friendly smile.

The two went their separate ways; Isabella went to the castle, and Thomas made his way back into the market to finish his purchases. It wasn't until a few minutes later that he remembered that the queen had, in fact, left for a few days this morning, but when he turned to face the castle, she was gone.

`The castle seemed to radiate warmth which was odd considering that the primary tenant was called, "The Ice Queen" a title that was a surprisingly literal nickname assuming she had been properly reading the hints she'd been given.

It kind of bothered her that no one came out and said, "Hey, Elsa is who you are after. She's the queen of Arendelle, and she has ice powers." Sure, it was strongly implied, but why must people simply imply things. She wanted them to be forthcoming and outright with things. It made it simpler for everyone.

She quietly approached the open gates of the castle, almost expecting them to be some sort of trap. When she passed through them, the guards, rather than questioning her, welcomed her.

She eyed them suspiciously. They smiled at her.

She had arrived at the castle courtyard with no instruction as to what to do or where to go.

A short time later a servant came into the courtyard. They made eye-contact before the servant quickly turned back the way she came; she almost tripped on what appeared to be air on her way out.

Isabella rolled her eyes and waited further. She figured she would give it a few minutes.

Her patience was rewarded when a black-haired man walked through the very same doors the servant had.

He stopped a few feet from her and bowed.

"I am Phillip, royal adviser to Queen Elsa. I am deeply sorry, but the queen is currently out."

"When will she be back?" Isabella asked.

"I'm afraid it will be a few days," He said. "But I can arrange for you to have shelter for the night until she returns."

"No, thank you. I prefer to sleep under the stars." She told him.

He gave her a knowing smile.

"Well, if you'll allow my guards to accompany you, they will set you up a short distance away from Arendelle. In fact, they'll put you right along the path the queen is expected to return from." His knowing smile turned into a warm one.

He waved the guards who were standing watch at the gates over, and he told them exactly where to lead Isabella.

"I didn't catch your name." Phillip said before they got the chance to leave.

"My name is Isabella." She said.

Phillip reached out his hand, and she grabbed it to shake it.

"It is nice to meet you, Isabella." He said, still donning his warm smile.

Isabella was about to respond when something caught her eye. She looked down at his arm where a gust of wind had blown his sleeve up a little bit.  
on his arm was a nasty burn. It started past his wrist and went up until the sleeve covered his arm again at least. It appeared to be old. While it was still scarred, the scar had obviously faded slightly. He followed her gaze and pulled his arm away and the sleeve down.

"I'm sorry." She said quickly.

"It's- it's fine." He stumbled out. "I don't know why, but when people look at it, it makes me uncomfortable."

"How did you get it?" She asked.

"I was trying to show a blacksmith how to do his job. Of course, that was the one time I mess up horribly and set fire to my shirt. Luckily, I was able to get it off before it scorched anything more than my arm."

"I'm so sorry." She said.

He shrugged his shoulders.

"You didn't have anything to do with it. I was being stupid, and I paid the price for it."

They simply stood there awkwardly for a moment. Neither knew what to say.

"Right, well, I have instructed the guards on where to lead you. You can stay there as long as you like. You are also welcome here whenever." He said, breaking the silence.

"How do you know I won't rob you?" She asked teasingly.

"I'm fairly good at reading people." He told her

"Okay. Lead on." She said to the men next to her.

"She'll be back in a few days." Phillip reminded Isabella as she left.

Anna; Elsa; Kristoff; and Olaf had very different thoughts running through their minds as they neared the ice palace.

Well, Anna and Elsa were only thinking along slightly different lines.

The morning they had left, Phillip informed Elsa that he had scheduled a meeting with a representative of Weselton to discuss a potential deal to re-engage in trade.

"Why didn't you ignore them?" Elsa demanded when she had heard that this meeting would cut her trip to the ice palace short.

"Because, your majesty," He made sure to sound extra respectful. "Arendelle's economy, while still doing fairly well, has been in a slight decline since trade between our kingdoms has been cut off, and they're doing slightly worse as well. Corona is a small enough kingdom such that they can't handle being our only trade partner since we also cut off the Southern Isles; they have been suggesting for a long time that we strike a deal with Weselton; and now that their economy is starting to struggle they want us to ease off of them so that they can get themselves in order. Those are just a few of the reasons; it seems mutually beneficial to Corona; Weselton; and most importantly Arendelle that we begin trading again."

And so, Elsa had the outcome of the future meeting on her mind.

Anna was very bitter that her vacation was being cut short by the kingdom whose duke had tried to murder her sister, understandably so.

Olaf was still just happy to be anywhere doing anything.

Kristoff had a much more bleak thought occupying his mind. He was worried about the snow behemoth that had thrown him and Anna out their first visit, and what might happen if he was still there.


	5. Chapter 5

Just before the sun set, Anna; Elsa; Kristoff; and Olaf were pulled up by Sven in front of the ice palace.

They quickly dismounted, and Sven tried to bolt up the icy steps.

Despite being slightly broken, Kristoff still gaped at the beauty of the palace.

Elsa didn't. She was very unhappy that the palace was in disrepair from Hans's visit. The stairs had a section that was broken; the balcony upstairs had it's railing broken off by the two doors upstairs that, admittedly, she herself had broken off; and she knew that on the second floor there was a shattered chandelier on the floor.

Anna walked up to Kristoff and smiled at the speechless mountain man.

She glanced from Olaf attempting to help Sven up the stairs then back to Kristoff.

"I've seen this before, but even slightly broken, it's magnificent." He said.

"Are you going to cry again?" Anna teased.

"I didn't cry last time." Kristoff defended.

It was then that Kristoff noticed that Sven was, once again, struggling and failing to ascend the icy staircase.

"Come on, buddy. That isn't going to work." He said as he took Olaf's place, but instead of helping Sven up, he brought him down.

"Hey, Elsa, can you make a stable for me to keep Sven and the sled?" He asked.

"Sure." Elsa said as she laughed at the disappointed expression Sven was throwing in every direction.

Elsa waved her hand toward the right of the stairs, and up from the ground a icy stable formed out of the snow.

Anna; Kristoff; Olaf; and Sven all stared in wonder at the queen's creation, but Elsa eyed her work suspiciously. She glanced her her almost white palace, and then she glanced back at her icy blue stables.

Kristoff led Sven into the stables.

Kristoff stood in awe of how detailed Elsa was able to make the interior without even being able to see it. It looked exactly like you would expect a stable to look with two major exceptions. First, it was made of ice and, therefore, the color of ice. Second, there was a small patern on the wall in a stripe about waist high. The patern was of young Elsas and Annas playing together. Kristoff eyed the paterns closely and noticed that each one was different. some of the images were of Elsa and Anna having a snowball fight; others had them building a snowman; yet others had them making snow angels; others still had them sledding, but despite some of the pictures showing the same activity, each one was completely different.

He stumbled out of the stables, still speechless.

They wordlessly began climbing the steps until Kristoff found his voice a short way up.

"Is this the first time you guys have been here since...?" He trailed off, not wanting to give voice to the events if he didn't need to.

Elsa and Anna nodded.

Kristoff; Olaf; and Anna kept ascending the steps, but Elsa stopped as soon as she reached the section where Hans and Marshmallow tumbled off. For a split second, Elsa wished that Hans hadn't caught the edge, but then she thought of what would have happened if she had. She would have killed two men, Anna would have thought her fiance died a hero rather than a traiterous basturd, and Anna would have likely blamed Elsa for his death. Anna might have even come back to bring Elsa to justice herself. Elsa swallowed the lump in her throat and silently thanked the gods that things worked out okay for her and her sister.

"Are you coming Elsa?" Anna called back to her.

Elsa gave her sister a smile.

"Give me a minute."

"One, two, three, four..." Anna beamed at her sister as she began counting to sixty. She turned back, so that Elsa could no longer hear her counting, but judging by Kristoff's body language, she still was.

Elsa looked at the broken railing before her. She waved her hand and the ice reformed.

The icy blue ice. She glanced at the rest of the white stairs and the white palace; then she looked at her icy blue patch job. She scowled at it.

Elsa willed her new construction to melt away, leaving the stairs to look just the way they did before she arrived. She concentrated and tried again. She made her icy blue, boring ice again.

Once again she melted it and tried again, concentrating much harder.

Elsa's arm burned.

She pulled back and cradled her arm while breathing very heavily from the pain she still felt a little bit.

Her arm looked fine and a quick glance at the staircase told her that she had at least had some success. About 6 inches of the staircase had returned; it was now the same slightly red color as the rest of Elsa's palace.

Elsa, determined, put both of her hands forward and concentrated. She tried to ignore the pain running through her entire body as she continued to reform the railing. Once she could tell she was done, she collapsed onto the ice and gasped for breath. She felt as though she might vomit. She did when she realized something; there was still more work to do.

Olaf; Anna; and Kristoff walked through the doors of the palace.

"Five, six, seven..."

"Can you stop that?" Kristoff asked.

"Eight, no, ten, eleven..."

Just then a big snow beast rounded the corner at the top of the staircase within the palace.

"I told you not to come back!" He roared.

"Sixty." Anna finished.

The beast jumped from the top of the staircase onto the main floor where Kristoff and Anna stood. He swung his arms at the happyish couple. They dodged in opposite directions. Anna to the left, Kristoff to the right. They hid under their respective staircase.

Olaf followed Anna.

Marshmallow followed Kristoff.

Marshmallow grabbed Kristoff out from under the stairs and lifted him into the air by his feet.

"Elsa!" Anna cried.

"I'll be up in a minute." Elsa called back, voice shaking.

If Kristoff hadn't known any better, he would have said that (Elsa) was the one being attacked by a snow monster.

Anna scowled at Marshmallow and bolted at the snowman. She jumped onto his leg and climbed up his body. Marshmallow was distracted enough by this that he stopped swinging Kristoff around.

Anna made her way onto Marshmallow's head and leaped from there to his hand. More specifically, to the Kristoff in his hand. Anna smashed into Kristoff with such force that they both tumbled to the floor.

"Elsa!" Anna cried much more urgently.

Olaf tackled a distracted Anna out of the way of a giant snow arm, taking the hit himself.

* * *

Elsa felt like she couldn't walk. Her entire body was shaking. This was _far_ worse than when she used her powers against fire. She thought back to when she first made the palace. She had done everything so effortlessly. She imagined a palace for her to seek shelter in in her isolation, and within seconds it was there. she _accidentally_ brought a snowman to life! All without even thinking about it. Yet here she could barely make a few feet of the stuff before she felt like passing out.

Anna's voice called again.

Elsa still didn't feel like she could move, but she could tell Anna was frightened which didn't make sense to Elsa, but she tried to get up anyway. Her legs buckled from beneath her.

Elsa then remembered that the staircase had railing.

Elsa grabbed the railing on both sides and pulled herself up.

Between her shaky legs and shaky arms she was able to slowly make her way up the stairs.

As she walked, Elsa could feel some of the pain melt away. She looked back to see if that was because her ice was melting, but it wasn't.

By the time Elsa made it to the door, she felt like she could walk on her own again.

Elsa thought of the ice palace and vaguely wondered how it would feel to make it again. Elsa was confident she die long before the structure even took form.

The doors opened wide for Elsa, and she limped inside to find Anna and Kristoff dodging attacks from Marshmallow. Olaf was sitting in a corner, trying to get his pieces back together.

"Mama?" Marshmallow questioned as he saw her walk through the door.

Marshmallow's expression darkened as he returned his attention back to Anna and Kristoff.

"Stop!" Marshmallow did as he was told as soon as the word had left Elsa's mouth.

"But you made me to keep them away." Marshmallow defended.

"And now I want them here." She said.

"Sorry." Marshmallow said looking at Anna and Kristoff.

Kristoff simply stood there, but Anna nodded her head.

"You're forgiven." She said.

"Sorry, mama." His gaze switched to Elsa.

"It's okay. No harm done, right guys?" She asked.

Anna nodded, but Kristoff said:

"I'm going to have a killer bruise on-"

"No harm done." Elsa said to Marshmallow, completely cutting off a Kristoff who was currently rolling his eyes at the queen.

"Mama!" Marshmallow ran to Elsa and picked her up in his arms, squeezing her tightly.

Elsa had to admit that despite cold not being a bother to her, she could feel it work it's magic on her achy body. The tightness of the hold wasn't a particular bother to her either, but she must have made some indication that it did because Kristoff told Marshmallow to let her down.

"Can't you see that you're hurting her?"

Marshmallow loosened his grip and put Elsa down.

Elsa walked back to Anna, still limping slightly.

"See? You've given her a limp!" Kristoff accused.

Marshmallow seemed to gasp.

"I'm so sorry, mama!" He cried.

"It's fine. I rather enjoyed the hug." She said in a calm manner.

Elsa didn't know exactly why, but she didn't want Anna or Kristoff to know about the pain she felt when using her magic to rebuild the palace, and them thinking that it was Marshmallow that gave her the limp provided the perfect cop out.

Kristoff and Marshmallow went over to help Olaf find himself and put himself back together.

They spent the rest of the day deciding what they would do with they're trip. They also thought about things they could add to the palace. Kristoff suggested sizable expansions to the castle structure which Elsa shot down.

"I don't know exactly how much weight my ice can support." She masked her weakness with lies. It sickened her, or perhaps that was the thought of using her powers that way again that sickened her.

Anna proposed much more interesting and manageable ideas.

"A throne on the top floor!" Elsa giggled as she wrote down what Anna had so excitedly proposed.

"A chest with a bunch of ice weapons in it!" Anna called out.

That idea really intrigued Elsa. She might not even need to use the painful ice to make the weapons.

"What kind of weapons?" Elsa asked her sister.

"Swords, maces, axes," Anna gasped. "Bows?"

"Bows? I don't know if it's possible to make bows out of ice, Anna." Elsa said.

"You'll figure it out." She said.

"Bedrooms?" Kristoff suggested.

That sounded like a lot of work for her painful ice.

"Kristoff, I like these rooms open, and I already told you I don't want to build more than what's here because I don't know how much weight the palace can support." Elsa still couldn't decide if it was the lying that made her sick or the thought of how much pain using that ice brought to her. She felt the pain before she lied, but that could just be because she knew she would have to lie.

"Well, we need some place to sleep." He said.

"Why not here?" Anna suggested, gesturing to the room they were currently in which was the first floor.

"Ooh! Elsa! You should make a nice tiara out of ice!" Elsa wrote it down.

"It's clear who the favorite here is." Kristoff joked.

"Suggest things that are more doable, and I might write them down." Elsa told him.

"Beds?"

Even that sounded like a little bit much.

"You want to sleep on ice?" She asked him.

"Make them out of snow!" Anna said. "We can put our sleeping bags on top of them; it'll be like a mattress."

Elsa immediately motioned her hand and three, foot high piles of snow formed.

They were a foot high, and there were three of them.

"I guess I still didn't write them down, but I did it." Elsa said to Kristoff.

"You still only did it after Anna spoke up." Kristoff pointed out.

"She spoke up after I asked if you were sure you wanted to sleep on ice. It's not like sleeping on regular ground. Not only is it more unyielding, it's more cold."

Their talking and suggesting what to do with the palace spent what little of the day they had left. All of them went to bed except Elsa.


	6. Chapter 6

Elsa crept past Anna; Kristoff; and Olaf. Marshmallow stirred, but she shushed him, and he obeyed.

If Elsa wanted to keep up the charade that she could do this, she wouldn't have any sleep tonight.

The logical person in her said that that would be even worse for her painful ice. Sleep might help her bare the pain better. Then again, there's no way she could hide the fact that she was in that much pain from Kristoff; Marshmallow; or Olaf, much less Anna. Heck, Elsa already knew Anna was a little bit suspicious from the way she kept inspecting her.

Elsa's first order of business was to repair the damage done to the palace.

As Elsa raised her hands to repair the balcony on the top floor, she really hoped that most of the reason she felt so much pain before was because she wasn't expecting it.

As soon as she felt the ice forming in front of her, she had to shut her eyes from the pain she felt. Elsa knew that she was doing something wrong. When she had first made all of this, she felt no pain or weakness. She even thought that was just how her ice was, but she now realized that she was wrong.

Elsa knew she was missing something. Some part of the puzzle that was missing. ... Or some part of the puzzle that was new and unneeded.

With a gasp Elsa stopped using her magic. She looked back at her work. The part that had broken off looked just like the rest. The balcony was done; on to the door _to_ the balcony.

Elsa tried something to lessen the pain she felt. This time, she only used one hand which left the other hand open to be clenched into a fist in an attempt to keep her mind off of it.

It didn't work.

Elsa finally finished remaking the door. She took a few breaks in there to breath and try to ease the pain, but she always eventually needed to start again.

Once Elsa was finished with the doorway, she decided to go in a different route. She created her tiara that Anna had suggested out of her regular ice, but she did her best to add different colors to it for jewels. Her icy blue tiara had several round shapes of dark blues; whites; even some more odd colors like red.

Elsa tried the same approach with her throne, to a similar effect.

The pain and soreness was still there, but Elsa knew she had to continue eventually.

She moved on to the chest of weapons, and Elsa tried one last thing to try and keep her mind off of the pain. She caused more pain. Biting her index finger on her right hand, Elsa brought her left forward and began forming the chest. Her finger wasn't sending her pain so she bit harder. She could actually stand to have her eyes opened this time, but barely. Elsa couldn't make the chest nearly as ornate as she could, or had to with some of the castle repairs, because of the pain, but it was finished. It was only then that her senses returned to her and she felt incredible pain in her finger and tasted the metallic taste of blood.

Sure enough, Elsa brought her finger out of her mouth and it was bleeding. A lot. She felt a liquid running down her chin and neck and brought her left hand to brush it off. Of course, her hand came back red.

Elsa made a mental note to _never_ try that again. It was obvious now that the pain was so intense that her body actually dulled her senses to try and cope with it. It was frightening to Elsa that the pain was much worse than what she was actually feeling.

Elsa put a sheet of ice over the wound just like she'd done with her shoulder. She tried to make it as skin-colored as possible so that no one would notice, but red was still easily discernible through the ice.

The problem came when trying to move her finger. The ice was preventing her from doing so.

Elsa tried a creative solution. She melted much of ice around her knuckle, but when she replace it, she tried to make very, _very_ small interlocking chains rather than a straight sheet of it. The chains were small enough that her eyes couldn't notice them and they didn't let blood out, yet they were there and functional as Elsa could move her finger around freely.

This gave Elsa an idea. She tried to use a similar idea for the ice bow that Anna had suggested. She created a similar system, but she designed it such that gravity would force the chain links to heavily favor being in the proper position. Sure enough she got a bendable bow, now she just needed the string. She tried her chain technique again, but only gave the ice flexibility, not a preference to any particular position. Next were the arrows. Elsa used her tiny chains to make the feathers for a straight shot and aerodynamics. Other that that, though, the arrows were the same as other arrows just made out of ice.

Elsa tested the bow out, and it worked better than she thought it would. The bow still wouldn't have been up to her guard's standards, but it was a passable bow for the uses that she and her company would require.

The time it took for Elsa to craft it next to the pride she felt in her creation eased the pain from her previous creations. Elsa proceeded to make two more bows and several other weapons: spears; swords; daggers; she even made a few shields.

Elsa, while still feeling weak from before, had nothing left to do but repair the chandelier that had nearly crushed her. She almost didn't, but the room looked so bland without it.

Elsa fired her magic into the ceiling and out of grew the chandelier once again.

Elsa was shocked to discover that she wasn't feeling pain this time. In fact, she wasn't really feeling anything.

_'Perhaps that's the secret.'_ Elsa thought as she saw the chandelier take shape. _'"Conceal, don't feel." I'm not feeling any emotion, and I don't feel any pain eith-'_

Elsa's thoughts were interrupted by her mind taking a break and her body crashing to floor of the palace.


	7. Chapter 7

"Elsa!" Elsa heard her name cascading from the lips of her sister the first twenty or so times, but she was incapable of doing anything about it.

It wasn't until this final time that Elsa actually opened her eyes.

"Elsa!" Anna's voice was relieved rather than frightened that time.

Hunched over her was a very concerned looking, but also obviously relieved, Anna.

Kristoff was standing beside Olaf and Marshmallow a short distance away.

All of them looked worried.

Elsa tried to look as strong as she could, which was not very, as she spoke, trying to sound as strong as she could.

"Anna?" Which was not very.

Anna said nothing; she simply exhaled sharply and smiled.

It was only then that Elsa remembered fully the events of the previous night. Panic crept up.

"How long have I been here?" Elsa asked whoever was willing to answer.

"Whoever was willing to answer" turned out to be Kristoff.

"Since we found you? Six hours. Total? I don't know. We found you like that... six hours ago."

"I apologize." Elsa's still shaky voice sounded. "I didn't get to bed last night. Well, I guess eventually I did." Elsa joked, eliciting a laugh from Kristoff, but Anna wasn't so easily distracted.

"Kristoff, honey, I think I left something in the sled. Can you go get it?" Anna said.

"Sure, what is it?" Kristoff asked innocently.

Anna pondered this question for a long time. She opened her mouth to speak a couple of times, but closed it shortly after.

"I don't know. just go get it." She finally decided on as she pushed Kristoff and the snow people away.

Once Anna was sure they were out of earshot, she turned her attention to the queen.

"What's really going on?" Anna asked.

"I couldn't sleep, so I spent the night doing those things you had suggested and then I fell asleep." It was a half truth. Elsa chose not to sleep; she then worked on the suggestions; and she sort of fell asleep, but she mostly collapsed onto the ground unconscious.

"Elsa, you didn't fall asleep. I know you. You're the lightest sleeper I've ever known. I can't sneak out to get a midnight snack without you catching me. Ever." Elsa internally cursed at herself. If she hadn't insisted on constantly treating Anna like her child when it came to some of those types of things, Elsa would probably be able to metaphorically pull the wool over her sister's eyes in this situation.

"Look, Anna..."

"You're about to tell me that it's _not_ a big deal, and that I shouldn't be making a big deal out of it." Anna said, scowling.

"Yes."

"Fine," She said after a short pause. "But if anything like this happens again, I _won't_ let it go." She told Elsa.

Kristoff waited just long enough to make it seem like he wasn't there the whole time before he finally made his presence known.

"I couldn't find it." He said.

"That's fine." Anna told him, as if she'd actually sent him out for something that could have been found. "Let's just make this time as fun as it can be before we have to leave tomorrow night."

And they did.

However, those events would be boring and slightly time-consuming to relay here.

And so, the day came and went. The sisters; snowmen; and ice man had a pretty good time, but now they had just left to return to Arendelle.

"Where's Olaf?" Anna asked, looking around and noticing a distinct lack of a snowman.

"He opted to stay at the palace with his brother." Elsa said.

"Oh..." Anna trailed off, obviously past that thought and on to something else.

"Why are we leaving at night?" She asked another question.

"Because I need to be back at the castle tomorrow afternoon, but I noticed how disappointed you were, so I tried to give us as much time up here as possible."

"Right... what about wolves?"

Now was Kristoff's turn to chime in.

"I would be shocked if we encountered any. We probably won't even-"

Kristoff's assurance that they wouldn't even find signs of wolves around was cut short by the sounds of howling in the distance, but the sound wasn't quite in the distance enough for anyone within the sleigh.

"How shocked are you?" Anna asked.

"I was going to say I'd be shocked if we encountered them. We'll be fine, trust me."

Elsa and Anna looked at each other for a brief moment, sharing a skeptical visage.

"Why don't we?" Elsa asked him.

Even Sven looked slightly worried.

* * *

Isabella stood glaring at a bunch of wood on the ground in front of her. Other than the rise and fall of her chest and the closing and re-opening of her eyelids, she was motionless. After a few moments of this, she raised a hand and brought her right index finger to her left palm.

As if striking a match, Isabella quickly brushed her finger against her hand.

As if striking a match, her finger actually ignited.

She gently blew on the fire on her finger, but rather than extinguishing the flame, it shifted off of her finger and gently fell onto the wood at her feet.

Isabella smiled as the flames spread over the entirety of the wood in front of her.

She didn't need it for heat, of course. Being someone who had magical control over fire had some up sides and some down sides. One such upside was that she wasn't particularly sensitive to the hot or the cold. Even if she was cold, she could just raise her body temperature to compensate. She used the fire for light.

Isabella knelt down in front of the fire and scooped some up as if it was water. She couldn't help but giggle as the fire stayed in her hands despite being cut off from the rest of the flames.

She frowned, remembering a time when her mother would tease her about playing with fire.

On some level she meant it every time she told her daughter not to play with fire, but seeing as how Isabella almost always had complete control over her abilities as well as having a son who controlled water made her a lot more calm about it. Until the day she died, Isabella's mother was surprisingly accepting of her and Andrew's abilities, only ever telling them to keep it a secret from others for fear of what they would do to her children. After she died, Isabella learned that she was right to want their magic to remain a secret.

She left peacefully, but she still left. Not ever having a father, the two children were placed in an orphanage. She, as well as a few others, including her brother, escaped the orphanage, but past that her brother left Isabella to fend for herself. She cursed him under her breath. She'd learned how to cope on her own, but she shouldn't have needed to.

On that "happy" thought, Isabella laid down on the cold, hard ground and went to sleep only to be roused a short time later by the sound of howling wolves.


End file.
